The strength of Tyre lay in its insular situation; for the adjacent main-land, whereon Palæ-Tyrus was placed, was a fertile plain, thus described by William of Tyre during the time of the Crusaders:—
“Erat prædicta civitas non solum munitissima, sed etiam fertilitate præcipuâ et amœnitate quasi singularis: nam licet in medio mari sita est, et in modum insulæ tota fluctibus cincta; habet tamen pro foribus latifundium per omnia commendabile, et planitiem sibi continuam divitis glebæ et opimi soli, multas civibus ministrans commoditates. Quæ licet modica videatur respectu aliarum regionum, exiguitatem suam multâ redimit ubertate, et infinita jugera multiplici fœcunditate compensat. Nec tamen tantis arctatur angustiis. Protenditur enim in Austrum versus Ptolemaidem usque ad eum locum, qui hodie vulgo dicitur districtum Scandarionis, milliaribus quatuor aut quinque: e regione in Septentrionem versus Sareptam et Sidonem iterum porrigitur totidem milliaribus. In latitudinem vero ubi minimum ad duo, ubi plurimum ad tria, habens milliaria.” (Apud Hengstenberg, ut sup. p. 5.) Compare Maundrell, Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 50, ed. 1749; and Volney, Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. ii, pp. 210-226.
[506] Justin (xviii, 3) states that Sidon was the metropolis of Tyre, but the series of events which he recounts is confused and unintelligible. Strabo also, in one place, calls Sidon the μητρόπολις τῶν Φοινίκων (i, p. 40); in another place he states it as a point disputed between the two cities, which of them was the μητρόπολις τῶν Φοινίκων (xvi, p. 756).
Quintus Curtius affirms both Tyre and Sidon to have been founded by Agênôr (iv, 4, 15).
[507] See the interesting citations of Josephus from Dius and Menander, who had access to the Tyrian ἀναγραφαὶ, or chronicles (Josephus cont. Apion. i, c. 17, 18, 21; Antiq. J. x, 11, 1).
[508] Joseph. Antiq. J. ix, 14, 2.
[509] Diodor. xvi, 41; Skylax, c. 104.
[510] Strabo, xvi, p. 756.
[511] A Maltese inscription identifies the Tyrian Melkarth with Ἡρακλῆς (Gesenius, Monument. Phœnic. tab. vi).
[512] Herodot. ii, 44; Sallust, Bell. Jug. c. 18; Pausan. x, 12, 2; Arrian, Exp. Al. ii, 16; Justin, xliv, 5; Appian, vi, 2.